Investment in Cycle Superhighways must focus on key junctions

LCC welcomes greater investment in cycling, which provides by far the best value transport investment (1), but the rest of the Cycle Superhighways must do much more than the first two pilot routes to tackle difficult junctions.

Without such action, the Superhighways will not live up to the Mayor’s promise of roads where “the bicycle will dominate and that will be clear to all others using them” (2). They will not encourage enough Londoners to cycle and thus deliver the increased use of routes the Mayor wants to see.

To make the Superhighways fulfil the Mayor’s vision, cyclists wish to see lower speed limits, clear cyclist priority on routes, and continuity that is not disrupted by the big junctions and diversions around one-way systems.

Oliver Schick, chair of LCC’s Policy Committee, said: “Increased cycling reduces congestion and pollution and improves health, so that it is vital that we make the best use of the opportunity presented by Cycle Superhighways to attract the one in three Londoners who want to cycle.

”We’re pleased to see high-level championing and investment in cycling, and an opportunity for solutions to the biggest problems for new cyclists. We welcome the increased cycle parking along Superhighway routes, clear marking of routes, provision of cycle training, and workplace initiatives associated with the programme (3). “However, we are disappointed at the lack of progress on the barriers presented by large junctions and one-way systems such as Stockwell, Kennington and Tower Gateway. London is heavily distorted by these legacies of a less-enlightened past transport policy, and it needs to be returned to its natural cycling-friendly form.”

LCC says that one-way systems must be returned to two-way operation, as was the Shoreditch gyratory in 2002-3. These measures have a huge role to play in unlocking the potential for increased cycling.

We are also calling for an independent review of the pilot Superhighways, so that they continue to be improved after this initial phase, and both current and future routes live up to the Mayor’s vision of “safe, direct, continuous, well-marked and easily-navigable routes along recognised commuter corridors”.

The LCC has proposed a central London ‘BikeGrid’ to make sure that Cycle Superhighway users find reduced barriers when they continue into and through the heart of London (the Cycle Superhighways currently stop near the edge of central London).